By [wpbb post:author_name type=’display’ link=’yes’ link_type=’archive’] // [wpbb post:date format=’F j, Y’]

Last week was such a different game for Sapulpa compared to tonight’s game against Booker T. Washington, which ended in a sore and heavily defensive 20-3.

At the risk of hanging on to the past, let’s do a short recap: Sapulpa faced a district-undefeated Muskogee and the winner of that game was going to be given at least somewhat of a path to the playoffs. Or at the very least, be considered clear playoff material.

Last week, Sapulpa scored in the first several possessions they had, before a second-half Muskogee exited the locker room with a renewed vigor, pushing Sapulpa to the brink, which was stopped by a fantastic block in overtime.

Then suddenly, a sharp left turn left another one in the loss column for Sapulpa left most of us reeling: what happened to our Chieftains?

Simply put, they hadn’t faced an opponent like this one yet this year. The BTW Hornets were arguably the most defensively heavy team to hit Chieftain stadium this season, as evidenced by the extremely slow scoring first half of the game.

But we can’t put the fault completely at the Chieftains feet for the slow first half; each team only cleared 1 out of 7 3rd-down conversions. And while the Hornets had a lead with nothing done to deserve it (they recovered a fumble in the endzone to get the first TD). Sapulpa would respond with it’s best play of the game (and early in the game, too) with a solid 52-yard run by Senior A.J. Checotah. Good old Mortazavi gave Sapulpa it’s first and only points on the board with a field goal halfway through the second quarter.

And then something happened in the locker room, because the hornets came out and attacked. A tired defense couldn’t hold them off as Dax Hill scored a 44-yard touchdown reception to take Booker T to 14 on Sapulpa’s 3. Finally in the fourth quarter, BTW scored their final TD with 8 minutes left in the game, and attempted 2 points—presumably to force Sapulpa to three touchdowns—but failed on that attempt. Regardless, Sapulpa Couldn’t seem to pull it together enough to stage a comeback and fell further from grace with an intercepted hail mary pass just before the close of the game.

Chieftains will head to Shawnee to play in one week. Kickoff will be at 7:30pm